An attorney representing state employees said Thursday that he believes more than 150 state employees have been fired for alleged food stamp fraud.Rich Rochlin — who said he represents 60 state employees fired or under investigation in the scandal surrounding Connecticut's administration of the federal Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or D-SNAP — declared that the number of employees terminated far exceeds the 27 that Gov.Dannel P. Malloy's administration has announced so far.

A Malloy spokesman Thursday night said he couldn't confirm or deny Rochlin's estimate but promised an update soon. Regardless of the exact number, it was clear that the situation is escalating. Thursday brought two significant developments:

• Fired state workers met in Hartford with NAACP leaders and state Sen. Eric Coleman in Hartford. State NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile said his organization is investigating the matter, noting that the vast majority of the fired workers are members of racial minorities. Many are single mothers, Rochlin said. Esdaile said he will bring the matter to the national NAACP's board. A crowd of about 70, many of them fired state workers, gave him a standing ovation.

•The state Department of Social Services said that it also has referred the cases of 171 non-state-employee D-SNAP recipients to the Office of the Chief State's Attorney for investigation and possible prosecution.

Those 171 people "received D-SNAP benefits after Tropical Storm Irene in September 2011, but were found ineligible in a sample of reviews by DSS investigators and a contracted audit firm," DSS spokesman David Dearborn said in an email, adding: "The individuals' ineligibility was deemed to result from fraudulent provision of income and/or liquid asset information on their signed DSNAP applications."

The Malloy administration has not updated the numbers of fired state workers since mid-March, when the governor said the scandal had led to 27 firings, 10 retirements and five resignations. All 42 employees who have left state service are potentially subject to criminal sanctions, but no arrests have been announced.

The employees were fired because the Malloy administration says they falsified their financial information when applying for emergency food stamp benefits D-SNAP. The program began following Tropical Storm Irene, which ravaged the state and knocked out electrical power to thousands in late August.

In a statement Thursday night, Andrew McDonald, Malloy's chief counsel, said: "We are confident this investigation was conducted fairly. It was conducted in accordance with the law. It was conducted in close coordination with prosecutors. If anyone challenges the integrity of this investigation in court, we look forward to seeing their evidence as opposed to listening to their rhetoric, and we are prepared to demonstrate they're flat out wrong."

McDonald's statement continued: "The Governor has made it clear over and over again that public service is a privilege, and any abuse of that privilege will not be tolerated.

The emergency money was designed not only to replace lost food, but also to cover storm-related expenses like property repairs and temporary housing costs such as hotels. Actual food stamps are no longer issued, and recipients instead received debit cards with a specified amount of money allocated to the account.

After saying for months that about 800 state employees were involved, Malloy announced in March that an additional 250 state employees had filled out applications for benefits. As such, an overall total of 1,053 state employees actually sought to receive emergency benefits.

Of more than 1,000 state employees involved, 685 have been cleared of any wrongdoing, according to a previous count by the Malloy administration.The vast majority of state employees who applied "were honest" about their incomes and liquid assets in bank accounts, Malloy said.

Larry Dorman, spokesman for union Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said on Thursday night: "We've said from the start that any worker, public or private sector, who knowingly defrauded the D-SNAP program should be held accountable as a matter of public trust. At the same time, in this country, people are innocent until proven guilty. State employees who have been investigated and punished are entitled to due process rights guaranteed by collective bargaining. For those members who believe they have been wrongly accused, we are pursuing the grievance process to assure that the rights of individuals are respected."

Rochlin said that some of his clients, some who have lost their jobs and others facing unemployment, are considering filing for bankruptcy. Overall, he has multiple clients facing disciplinary action in the probe. One of those suspended without pay for 20 pays was Lisa Prout, a state employee who went public with her complaints shortly after Christmas. Prout has filed a lawsuit against the state, which is still pending.

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Posted 25 May 2012 - 10:42 AM

Like a black co-worker in the Air Force - he got food stamps, by ommitting his living on base, and free food.

He said that "if you can get it, it's yours".

The left goes by any means necessary.

But it's a crime if anybody else goes by that.

They get what they can get, and they will go after anybody who stands in opposition.

The lazy, lost entitlement subculture is going for us to be broke.

You can't fire black people for fraud. They'll have the naacp sue you. If you fire them for theft they'll shoot eight co workers and then get a memorial fund to fight the racism that turned them into a murderer. How long are they going to lean on that racism crutch? What about when white people only comprise 5% of the population in a few dozen years? Is their inability to take care of their own selves still our fault at that time?